Sermon Transcript Tone Analysis

We thought that you were going to watch a video of that group of musicians, but it didn't happen.

Sorry about that.

Somebody asked me, do you have to be like an official member of rice up Church to do the nominating and answer is no you anybody may nominate right.

If if we open the box and Mickey Mouse is one of the nominator Nations we're going to say now make he's probably not a good choice for us and so we we have we're not concerned about who makes the nominations.

You're, you're, you're everybody's welcome something else.

I was supposed to, I'm looking at my sorry, I'm going to stop looking at my table cuz we could just be troublesome.

Let's do this.

music, I like all kinds of music and my theory is if it's good music, then it crosses the style boundaries I'm not a country music listener.

That's not like my go-to station on the dial, but I love a really good country music song.

I'm not the kind of top 40s, hits person of General, a bit every once while I listen to a brand new song on the radio and I say, wow, that's really good.

It seems like what happens is as time passes the not-so-good music sort of Falls away and the stuff that's, that's really good continues, right?

So if you're listening to how far back do you want to go this year?

Listen to that to the 90s greatest hits, you're listening, really to the best songs of the 90s, so you could keep doing that going back and back and back in time.

So let's go back, 300 years to 1741.

Here's what happened in, 1741 wealthy creative guy named Charles Jennings, compiled Bible passages you didn't write any of his own text.

You just compiled passages from the Bible that the he had available which was the King James version of the Bible.

In order to, in a compressed way, tell the story of the Messiah, Jesus, the son of God.

And then because he was a wealthy guy, he recruited one of the most talented musicians of the day, a guy named George frideric.

Handel, and he persuaded, and then paid for hondal to take this Bible excerpts that, he'd compiled and put them to music.

And that's how we came to have this body of music that we know as we used to call it.

The Messiah, though, the title of it is in in 1741.

It was like the best musician of the day.

Writing music.

And let me tell you a couple of interesting things about the Messiah.

The first one is, it's nothing but Bible.

So here's this long Coral work and the lyrics are nothing but quotations from the Bible.

So I I mentioned some kind of music that I don't normally listen to button where I find songs I like I love Amos Lee windows are rolled down.

It's a really good country song.

I said it always listen to the newest pop music.

But recently I heard Olivia Rodrigo.

Sing a song called driver's license.

And it's amazing.

It's it's really a fantastic song.

So think of your favorite songs that are you do on your favorites list and probably what's true about them as the lyrics are really fascinating.

But they're probably not scripture set to music.

So that's the remarkable thing about the Messiah, scripture, set to music.

That's one.

Interesting thing.

The interesting thing is, okay, so let's say, you've decided that you're going to pick out a bunch of scripture and you're going to put it to music and you're going to tell the story of Jesus.

With excerpts from the Bible.

Where would you start?

And I just think it's really fascinating that the Messiah starts with quiet instrumentation.

Often times, it's just a harpsichord and then one voice that sings comfort me Comfort.

Ye my people says the Lord I've been a pastor for a long time, and that means that I've prepared Christmas preaching, many, many, many, many, many, many times and I don't know why, but it's not until this year that I thought Messiah tells the Christmas story is a Christmas story and I did a little research and I just was absolutely impressed by it.

So that's what we're going to do.

We are going to live into Christmas this month of December by choosing the Bible passages that this work of Music chose to tell the story of Jesus.

So I'm calling it messiah messiah, part 1 and I might as well explain that.

The reason I called it part.

One is so sorry it wasn't written as a Christmas It was written as an Easter piece.

So we're going to do the same thing for a few weeks at Easter, and we'll call that Messiah part 2. I hope this is okay with you, that we would do Christmas this way.

It's all Bible and its what's attached to this.

Pretty famous piece of music that gets played year after year, after year, even though it's 300 years old.

So we start this morning with

Comfort.

My people says your God and Isaiah chapter 40.

I'll read it.

So no.

Would you keep up with me, please?

Comfort Comfort.

My people says your God speak, tenderly to Jerusalem and Proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed.

That her sin has been paid for that she has received from the Lord's hand, double for all her sins.

A voice of one calling in the wilderness.

Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the desert, a highway for our God, every Valley shall be raised up every mountain and Hill made low.

The rough ground shall become level the rugged places a plane.

And the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people will see it together.

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

That's how the Messiah starts when it wants to tell the story of Jesus.

And so let's just study it this morning and just take it as it comes.

So it starts with Comfort my people Comfort.

My people says your God, Distance from the book of Isaiah.

So it was written by a prophet named Isaiah, he wrote it to the people of his day.

This is about six hundred years before Christ.

And the location of the people is in the land of Israel.

These are the people of Israel and Isaiah is a prophet sent by God to them and what they needed comfort for was the fact that their society was deteriorating.

And I'll tell you about it.

But I have a hunch that you might say.

This feels a little familiar to be, so they watched their society around them deteriorating.

And so, God starts with the word of comfort to them, but here's what was happening.

They had a king.

Who was making some bad decisions and and they were all watching it happen.

You can read about it.

In the just preceding verse Isaiah 39.

His name was Hezekiah and there were, there was an Envoy from a Faraway country named Babylon who came to visit him and he was so intent intent on impressing them that he showed them everything, he showed them all of the Kingdom gold that he had amassed.

He showed them all of the silver that they had collected as the people of Israel, he showed them all of the Exotic spices that they had stored up and their Storehouse of fine olive oil.

If if Israel had it, he showed it to these envoys cuz you really wanted them to be impressed and then the envoys went on their way.

God sent the prophet Isaiah to ask him this question.

What did you show those guys?

And King Hezekiah said, I showed him everything.

There's nothing that we have that.

I didn't show them the backstory here is Hezekiah has kind of stopped relying on God to take care of his people and he's looking for a strategic allies who will take care of him.

So he's just foolish lie showed all of the riches of the land of Israel to people who probably would like to conquer the land of Israel.

And so, Isaiah, the prophet says to him, this is what God says, the Babylonians are going to take it all.

And your Offspring, like, your sons and daughters.

Some of them are going to be taken to the land of Babylon, where they will serve in the Palace of the Babylonian King as eunuchs in that King's household.

And here's how messed up the Israelites ruler.

Was he said to Isaiah, what you say is good because he was this is what he was thinking, I just heard Isaiah said, my kids are going to get taken to Babylon as prisoners but he didn't say meet.

So this is going to happen after my lifetime so I'm good with it.

Have you ever seen a politician who made short-term decisions?

To make him or herself more electable today, but maybe who doesn't really care about what the ramifications are long-term.

Or let me ask a different way.